Romans 9

¹I am speaking the truth in connection with Christ—I am not lying; my conscience is testifying to me in connection with the holy spirit—

²that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart.

³Indeed, I could wish that I myself were accursed—separated from Christ—in place of my brothers and sisters, my fellow Jews according to the flesh,

⁴who are Israelites. To them belong the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the receiving of the law, and the temple service to God, and the promises.

⁵To them belong the Fathers, and from them, according to the flesh, is the Christ. (God, who is over all, be blessed forever. Amen.)

⁶But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who have descended from Israel are truly Israel,

⁷nor are they all truly his children because they are Abraham’s seed; rather, through Isaac your seed will be called.

⁸This means, it is not the children of Abraham’s flesh who are children of God; rather, the children of God’s promise are counted as the seed.

⁹For this word of God contained a promise: About this time next year I will come, and Sarah will have a son.

¹⁰And not only her, but Rebekah also, when she conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac—

¹¹for though they were not yet born and had not made a practice of doing anything good or evil, so that God’s purpose according to his choice would stand, not because of works but because of him who calls—

¹²it was said to her, The older will serve the younger.

¹³As it is written: Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.

¹⁴What, then, are we to say? Is there unrighteousness with God? Absolutely not!

¹⁵For he says to Moses, I will show mercy to whom I show mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.

¹⁶So then, God’s choice does not depend on the one who desires or the one who exerts effort, but on God who shows mercy.

¹⁷For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, I raised you up for this very reason, so that I could show my power in front of you, and so that my name would be proclaimed in all the earth.

¹⁸So then, he shows mercy to whom he wants to show mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.

¹⁹You will then say to me, “Why does he still find fault? For who has ever been able to stand against his purposes?”

²⁰On the contrary, who are you, O human, to argue with God? Should what is molded say to the one who molded it, “Why did you make me like this?”

²¹Or does the potter not have authority over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honor and another for ordinary use?

²²But what if God, although wanting to show his wrath and to make known his power, endured with much patience the vessels of wrath that have stubbornly shaped themselves for destruction?

²³And what if he endured them in order to make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy that he prepared beforehand for glory—

²⁴including us also, whom he called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?

²⁵As it also says in Hosea, I will call those who were not my people, “My People,” and she who was not loved, “Beloved.”

²⁶And it will be that in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” there they will be called “Sons of the Living God.”

²⁷But Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel is like the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved,

²⁸for the Lord will carry out his decree upon the earth completely and decisively.

²⁹And just as Isaiah has foretold, If the Lord of Armies had not left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom and would have been like Gomorrah.

³⁰What, then, are we to say? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, obtained righteousness, that is, a righteousness that is by trust,

³¹but Israel, pursuing the law as a way of obtaining righteousness, did not succeed in attaining the righteousness of that law.

³²Why is that? Because they did not pursue righteousness by trust, but as if they could obtain it by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone,

³³as it is written: Look, I am placing in Zion a stone that will cause people to stumble—a rock that will cause people to fall—but the one who believes in him will not be put to shame.